Seven miles north of Rushville,
Bethany was organized in 1830 or ’40, preaching by Elder King, and afterward
by Elder Patton, then Wm. Ross, in a school-house known as the Garrison
school-house, where they had preaching at intervals, as they could secure
the services of some worthy brother, and the cause flourished for a while.
Then there arose a dissatisfaction between some of the members, and the
congregation went down, and they had no meeting for a long time.

In 1870 A. Brown, in company
with A. S. Robinson, came into the neighborhood and held a meeting in the
Garrison school-house again and got up a good interest, and had some new
additions, and some of the old parties had passed away. They reorganized
in the Garrison school-house, and in the summer of 1871 they built a house
of worship about one mile south of the school-house, which will comfortably
seat 200 persons, at a cost of about $1,400 in all. The first regular pastor
was A. S. Robinson, followed by Joseph Morgan, M. D. Sharples, and G. F.
Adams, after which A. Brown preached for them three years. At the present
time M. D. Sharples is employed again for one year; his term has not yet
expired. So ends this history.

Source: The Combined History
of Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois, 1882Transcribed by Carol Longwell
Miller for Schuyler County ILGenWebPhoto contributed by Cindy
Foster, [email protected]

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